The birl is everywhere in our pipe tunes, and it’s really, really important that you have a great birl. There are a few different styles of birl, but I’m going to teach you the very best one—the style that is played by most of the top players in the world, and that is what we call “the seven.” First, I’m going to show you how to do it, show you what it sounds like, and then it’ll be really clear why we call it the seven.

The basic idea of the birl is that it’s a Low A-based movement. It starts on Low A and ends on Low A, and in between, we have two really quick Low G strikes. A normal strike is just tapping the chanter, like an E strike or High A. But the seven-style birl has evolved over the years. We don’t know who invented it or which pipers contributed to its development, but here’s how it works: You touch the chanter—you’re not on the hole yet—you slide down across the hole and then slide back up. At the same time that you slide back up, you pull back. So, it’s touch, slide down, slide up, and pull back.

When I practice it, I start with a relaxed but straight finger. I touch, slide down, slide up, pull back, and then relax my finger to a straightened position.

The reason we call it the seven is that if you were to turn your chanter on its side and imagine the tip of your pinky is drawing, it goes down and then comes back like this—making a seven shape.

There are some other styles of birl that I don’t recommend. Now, if you have a great birl and play one of these other styles, great! I played a different style of birl when I first started out—that’s the one my teacher taught me. It was never very good, even with a lot of practice and a lot of attention. Despite my desire to have a great birl, I eventually switched to the seven birl, and I’m glad I did. It is the best birl by far in terms of consistency and speed.

It’s also really, really good and the only one that works consistently from the bottom-hand notes. When you get into some of the more advanced tunes, where you have birls from notes other than Low A—birls from B, birls from C, birls from Low G—a lot of the big, difficult tunes have those birls in them. You’ll want to play the seven birl for sure.

You can also add in a birl with a G gracenote. When I play that birl with the G gracenote, at the same time that I play my G gracenote, I bring my little finger down on the chanter to touch. So nice and slow…

If you want to play a birl from a different note, for example, E, I bring my E finger down to Low A at exactly the same time I bring my pinky down to touch. I’m ready for the birl—not two steps, but one, for the G gracenote.

If you play a different style of birl and have been playing for a while, and your birl isn’t what you want it to be in terms of sound, consistency, or confidence, I recommend switching to the seven-style birl. If you like piping and want clean fingering, and you plan to play for years to come, it’s worth having a good birl that you can count on. I switched to the seven, and I’m so glad I did. I fear no birl! And that just comes from having this method—it really, really works.

Some people shy away from it because it might be a little harder to learn initially, but it’s worth it. It’s really, really worth it.

One of the things you need to develop is this range of motion. Most people don’t have that motion built in—the hand is going to want to flare out. So, you can just practice doing this—it’s kind of like the dog-barking shadow puppet thing. You can also get a rubber band, wrap it around your hand, and practice this motion. You’re going to feel these muscles in here.

Part of it is strength and flexibility. It’s also the range of motion and the ability to move the pinky while keeping the other three fingers in position because they need to stay on the holes.

Now, when you do the pullback motion, you’ll see the tip of my ring finger moves a little bit. That’s normal. These fingers are anatomically connected, so when you pull the pinky in, the ring finger does move a little. That’s okay. If when you first start practicing this movement, your ring finger pulls off the hole, that’s okay—it’s totally normal.

With time, you’ll learn how to keep that B finger on the hole. It’s okay if it wiggles a little, but with time, it’ll stay on the hole, and it’ll wiggle just a little bit—but not so much that it comes off.

So, that’s your birl! If you liked this lesson on the birl, sign up for my Bagpipe Essentials Masterclass and get all of the high-quality video lessons that take you from the basics of bagpipe fingering to the most complex embellishments you need for your pipe tunes.

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